I once heard that many things will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart. Therefore, the two that have caught my heart is travelling and the companionship of my father. He has definitely been a great example in my life and look forward to scouting around together on a wild Safari. However, in the event we are chased by the big five, then it’s every man for himself! Sorry dad, you should’ve eaten less cheese burgers

Without planning is like planning to fail, so this is our tentative schedule of events (likely to change daily)

• Sept 12th – Arrive at the Johannesburg airport at 8:45 AM
• Sept 13th – Explore Johannesburg and pick up a land rover for our self guided safari through Kruger National Park

• Sept 14th – Drive out to Kruger Park for 3 days of bush-whacking with the Lions, Tigers, and Bears… Bears?

We will probably grab a chalet in Phalaborwa the first night and then head out to Letaba (a two-hour drive from Phalaborwa). Then head South for a sunset drive towards Nelspruit and land at Lower Sabie. Hang out for a bush walk in the early morning and then exit at Crocodile Bridge in the South-Eastern corner.

• Sept 17th – Head South West for our cross country road trip through the heart of South Africa

Our plan is to explore the scenic garden route from Mossel Bay in the Western Cape to the Storms River which crosses the Paul Sauer Bridge. There is also the last remaining passenger steam train in Africa (Outeniqua Choo Tjoe) that traverses these hills.

• Sept 19th – Spend Saturday night in Cape town and chat it up with the locals.

The tentative to-do list near Cape town are great white shark diving at Gansbaai, bungie jumping at Bloukrans Bridge (216 meters), Rappelling Table mountain, surfing, and sand boarding in the Atlantis dunes.

• Sept 25th – Fly back to Johannesburg for our international departure on the 26th.
• Sept 27th- Arrive in London and REST!

In the rare event that someone is actually reading this, then I would love any of your suggestions or things that I might be missing. We also haven’t nailed down any hotels yet so any comments would be great!

Nothing, that is, except for luscious wheat fields, crumpled clay hills and the ribboned vineyards of the Barbera grape, stood in the way of Ringo, Cicho, and Tom, our truffle hunting German short haired pointer dogs. They tactfully perused the dank woods of Moncalvo tirelessly. The sniffed out 4 white and two black truffles in a 2 hour time period. Unfortunately, they were below regulation, and also the rain drought hasn’t helped either. Without rain, the fields are less brittle making it more difficult for the dogs to pick up the scent.

Speaking of scent, you either love it or hate it. Some have assimilated the smell of truffles to primal musk, overripe cheese, or ozone while opponents claim it mimics the male pig sex hormone, and for that reason, female pigs have been used historically for the hunt; however, more recently it seems like most truffle hunters are transitioning to dogs. Tirone, our guide, has 5 dogs born and bred specifically for truffle hunting. They aren’t cheap either; an adult trained German Short-hair would run you around 5G’s. This is only a small investment if you consider a single truffle hunter bringing home around 5 kilos of white truffles a year… 10,000 bucks!

Afterwords, Tizzy and I were fortunate enough to enjoy the Fiera del Tartufo. In the Piemonte region, 1000’s of mushroom, cheese, and wine lovers alike follow the October Fiera across small villages throughout the region. This turned out to be fascinating… yet expensive. Bring your bancomat cause I easily spent 100 Euros on truffles, cheese, tartufo oils, honey, and roasted chestnuts. YUM!

Additional photos can be seen here